ANC meeting: A battle of the factions where SA stands to lose

9 March 2021

Please click here for s asoundbite by the DA Leader John Steenhuisen MP.

Following the meeting between former President Jacob Zuma and the ANC’s top leadership yesterday, it has become obvious that the factional battles in the ANC continue to cost South Africa dearly.

The meeting, which was meant to convince Mr Zuma to appear before the Zondo Commission, was an utter failure which confirms that the RET faction of the ANC has the upper hand and will allow him to disregard the constitution and the rule of law.

It is evident that Mr Zuma has every intention to disregard the Constitutional Court and the Zondo Commission, and that his party, the ANC, is all too happy to facilitate his indifference for the Constitution and the rule of law.

The ANC is treating its former President with kid gloves. They have demonstrated that there will be no real consequences for the disregard of the law from an organizational point of view. The governing party has a duty and an obligation to draw the line and distance itself from someone who defies the very constitution that he took an oath to uphold. But they continue to choose party factional battles over the country.

This is now an opportunity for the reformers within the ANC to come out of hiding in the defence of constitutionalism, the rule of law and the people of South Africa.

Unless those with the interests of the country at heart, speak out and assert themselves, South Africa will hurtle back towards the Zuma-era where the selfish interests of the ANC’s factional cliques will continue to ravage our country.

Now is the time for the reformers to be bold and brave. Should they fail to do so, they will be continue to be complicit in the hallowing out of our constitutional institutions as has been done by the very ANC over the past decade.

Issued byJohn Steenhuisen,Leader of the Democratic Alliance, 9 March 2021